I went back to the gym this morning. This is the first time I’ve been in the gym since the day before surgery. That 2.5 miles up there was spent on the elliptical machine. Except for playing with the kids that’s the closest I’ve come to running in what feels like forever.

Other than the occasional walk and chasing children, I haven’t been working out. Some days this bothers me. Working out is my happiness drug. But I’ve tried to keep in mind the long term goal: Be active for life. Sometimes that means not being active. It means being patient with myself, giving myself time to recover from major surgery.

No matter how crazy-making this is.

Apparently this strategy is working. Today I felt really good. I felt rested. My range of motion is getting so much better. While I have been going easy on the rest of my body, I haven’t babied my right arm.

My plastic surgeon said, “Don’t be afraid to be aggressive when stretching it. There nothing you can do to hurt that tissue expander. The more you use your right arm, the less likely it is that you’ll have shoulder problems later.”

I was so relieved to hear this. Little did he know, ‘aggressive’ is my super power.

Since that conversation I’ve used my right arm for every day tasks even when they’re uncomfortable. Hell, especially when they’re uncomfortable.

If reaching for a cup overhead stretched my arm near the point of pain I’d stop in whatever position was most uncomfortable and stay there, breathing into the stretch. One of the hardest things to do was to reach down into the bathtub to open or close the drain. Every time I’d do it I’d have to take deep breaths until my hand reached the drain.

Another hard thing to do? Putting both hands in the air over my head.

I could hold my left arm up straight toward the ceiling because it wasn’t injured. But right after surgery my right arm stopped about half way up. With work it went three quarters of the way up. Today, not quite four weeks after surgery, I did something I haven’t been able to do since January 27th.

Today’s silver lining: I stretched both arms straight up overhead.

Woo me!

Super powers are awesome!

What’s your silver lining today? I love comments!

Don’t want to leave a comment, but have something you want to share? Send me an email at gettingthewordswrong(at)gmail(dot)com.